Australian fintech Tic:Toc closes successful Series B funding
Australian fintech Tic:Toc, the world’s only fully digital home loan platform, today announced it has closed its Series B round, raising $11.5M in funding. The Series B funding, led by Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Limited (Genworth Australia) and Blackstone group entity La Trobe Financial, includes both new and existing investors and adds significant depth to the Tic:Toc share register, which also includes Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. The funding will allow Tic:Toc to further advance the capability of its platform as well as build greater brand awareness. It will also partially fund Tic:Toc ’s pending expansion into offering its automated assessment platform as a service to partners, as well as exploration […]
Airwallex in the money with $108m raise
Melbourne-based fintech start-up Airwallex has closed the second-largest fundraising round in Australian start-up history, taking in $US80 million ($108 million) for a Series B round led by Chinese conglomerate Tencent Holdings, alongside Sequoia Capital China and Melbourne’s Square Peg Capital. The company, which was founded by five Chinese-Australian 30-somethings, has built a system to enable cross-border payments by combining payments and foreign exchange transfers into a single transaction. In 2017 it raised $US19 million ($26 million) from the same investors, but it has now also added two more backers from China’s booming venture capital scene in Hillhouse Capital and Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures, as well as Indonesia’s Central Capital Ventura. […]
Alex Waislitz’s Thorney Investments, Regal back Credit Clear ahead of IPO
Rich lister Alex Waislitz’s Thorney Investments has taken a significant stake in debt payment fintech start-up Credit Clear, ahead of a potential float in mid 2019. The investment from Thorney was part of an $8.5 million capital raise, which was also supported by Regal Funds Management and some high net worth individuals. The raise was lower than its original target of $10 million, but co-founder Lewis Romano said the round was actually over-subscribed, with the company having made the decision to scale back the raise to $6 million and go after just one international market, the US, rather than expanding to the US, UK and Asia at once. “The lead […]
Quantifeed eyes Australian expansion with $13.5m raising
The fintech is looking to expand its B2B robo-advice business in Australia as a part of a $13.5 million venture capital raising announced today. The series B funding was led by Taiwanese giant Cathay Financial Holdings, with participation from US-based asset manager Legg Mason, and will go towards Australia and Asia Pacific growth. “We will be growing the Australian team over the next six to 12 months and also open an office [on an undisclosed timeline],” Quantifeed co-founder and chief executive Alex Ypsilanti told Financial Standard. The five-year-old fintech has now raised a total of $24 million. This includes today’s $13.5 million, a series A funding of $6 million in […]
YBF Ventures just scored $1.1 million in a new partnership deal
Melbourne-based innovation hub YBF Ventures has secured $1.1 million from Silicon Valley-based Partners for Growth (PFG) through a tailored debt funding facility. YBF CEO Farley Blackman says the funding will allow the hub to focus on growth, which includes significant expansion of its footprint throughout Australia.“As we grow, so will the number of startups, scaleups and companies that we support,” he said. The US investor, which provides specialised lending, has a strong track record in Australia, including funding facilities for 38 of Australia’s fastest growing companies such as Prospa, Koala Sleep and CashRewards. The investment is part of a new strategic partnership deal between the two organisation, to advance entrepreneurship […]
Online lender Prospa delays float 30 minutes to listing
The sharemarket float of online lender Prospa has been postponed about half an hour before the planned listing, after the corporate watchdog wanted further details of its small business loan contracts. Prospa and its joint lead managers – investment banks UBS and Macquarie – said the 48-hour delay was because it was “seeking to clarify queries raised by ASIC yesterday in relation to Prospa’s small business loan terms,” as part of a wider review. “Prospa was first contacted yesterday by ASIC in relation to its industry-wide review of small business lending – bank and non-bank. The review covers a range of topics,” a Prospa spokeswoman said. “We take our legal […]
Macquarie slips $20m into Stocard’s mobile wallet
Mobile wallet firm Stocard has landed $20 million from Macquarie Capital, with follow-on financing from original investors Shortcut, Alstin, Rocketship, HTGF and Engelhorn. Stocard co-founder and chief executive Bjorn Goss said the company would use the funds to launch a mobile payment functionality, recruit 40 employees across engineering, sales and marketing, and expand into new markets starting with the opening of its Paris office this week, then Toronto in the coming weeks. “It’s no longer a question that wallets will go mobile; the question is around how to execute the transition with the consumer’s best experience in mind,” he said. “Digital will reshape the shopping process and experience, as mobile […]
Brighte set to accelerate growth with $18.5m in funding
Sydney-based home energy fintech, Brighte, closes 18 months of strong growth with a Series B equity round of $18.5m. The round was led by Airtree Ventures and also includes Skip Capital, the Milgrom Family and further investment from Grok Ventures. Brighte is a digital credit platform offering affordable point-of-sale payment solutions for home energy improvements such as solar panels and batteries. In its first eighteen months it has over approved over $50m of applications from 6,000+ Australian homeowners. This stellar growth has been the result of a fully digital, innovative product being brought to the home improvements market as demand surges from everyday Australians for solutions to rising energy costs. […]
